Self-interest will boost code

There’s a telling saying in business: “No conflict, no interest". The sentiment applies equally in sport. In fact sport is built on, at times, blind parochialism and self-interest; it’s why we roll with our team’s momentum. And such self-interest doesn’t discriminate – it operates just as powerfully at club, provincial and national level. In fact it’s largely why anyone bothers to follow a team in the first place.

I was interested last week to see Otago coach Jamie Joseph’sand former Stormers captain Luke Watson’s comments on the new conference system in Super rugby this year. Both suggested Australian teams have a significantly easier conference and therefore an easier path to the play-offs. They are probably correct, for this year at any rate, but may not always be.

Take last year, when three local teams would have finished in the top six after playing every other team in the competition. It wasn’t easier then.

Watson goes further to suggest that the new set-up only serves Australian rugby and does little for South African Rugby Union and New Zealand Rugby Union as they both have thriving national competitions.

He is correct in that we do not have a national competition and the conference structure delivers local rugby such a format. But he neglects the attraction of an international competition compared with a local one and the benefits that can bring the code.

As a case in point, when thinking of rugby in Europe, the European Cup gives greater prestige to the winning club, greater prominence to many clubs, and an enhanced carrot for the broadcasters than any national feeder competition could do on its own.

Certainly, the new Super Rugby system is not perfect but it is the most interesting since its inception. The most conspicuous flaw is that each team doesn’t play every other team in the pool matches, as each side will skip one team in each of the other conferences. Significantly, in both the NRL and the AFL competitions, although teams do play each other at least once, they play only some teams twice. So occasionally, even in these mature competitions, one’s season may sway on the luck of the draw.

This may not be ideal in any system, however Super rugby maintains its integrity through the finals system where, if a team happens to slip through an easier conference, they should be accounted for in the play-offs. Despite this anomaly, regardless of conference, it is hard to argue that this isn’t the most difficult Super competition to win so far.

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Certainly it is now a more robust product and can raise its head less shyly against the more established behemoths of the NRL and AFL. In fact its international flavour gives it a viable point of difference.

The similarity across each of these competitions is that winning them requires not fleeting and patchy performance but sustained success. It requires that you win at home and away, and an away game can mean up to 24 hours’ travel in Super rugby. It also requires you adapt to injuries and different styles of play: what dispatches one team may be irrelevant against the next.

And then when you think it’s a tough enough job just to win, in some cases winning on its own is not even enough, it’s how you win that counts. Just ask the Waratahs. But, as fans and experts line up to criticise them, I would rather be in their shoes – that is the Waratahs players and coaches and fans’ shoes – than those of three other Australian Super rugby sides. At least they are still in the hunt.

After 15 years of development Super rugby’s shoulders are now broader and its voice has finally broken. And while at times it may look awkward, it is beginning to grow confidently into its future frame. What it resembles in its next iteration, which will be in at least four years’ time, remains to be seen. Will it include Asia or the Pacific Islands or Argentina? Who knows.

But what I do know is that it will grow faster and stronger while a healthy level of self-interest drives the passion, as long as it is not at the expense of delivering what is best for the code.